THE ELEPHANT OF INDIA. Ill 



India, and the East, are the countries where 

 the Elephant is most subjected to the dominion of 

 man ; and where it becomes almost a necessary 

 animal in the business of the inhabitants, of course, 

 affording a profitable employment to the dealers 

 in those animals, or, if one may be allowed the 

 term, to the elephant jockies. Various modes 

 have been devised to capture them ; and they do 

 not appear to display the same active intelligence 

 which they do on many occasions in a tame state, 

 or to be so timorous and wary as African travellers 

 describe the animal of that country. One of the 

 most commonly employed means of capture, is 

 driving them into a keddak, or enclosure, with a 

 wide or extensive opening, which is gradually 

 narrowed, and made on the same principle with 

 the Buffalo pounds, which we have noticed in a 

 former volume. The strength, however, of the 

 last enclosure, is very different. There is a broad 

 ditch, too wide for an Elephant to stride over, 

 of a considerable depth, and around, on the out- 

 side, is a paling of large timbers, well bound with 

 strong battens, and supported by props at suitable 

 distances, forming an immense bulwark. When 

 a large herd of Elephants is discovered, or when 

 two or more small herds are found so contiguous, 

 as to be easily brought together, the people of 

 the neighbouring country, who in general receive 

 regular wages for their aid, are collected to sur- 

 round them ; and often assemble to the number of 



